Related papers: Electron Heating in Hot Accretion Flows
In the innermost regions of low-luminosity accretion flows, including Sgr A* at the center of our Galaxy, the frequency of Coulomb collisions is so low that the plasma is two-temperature, with the ions substantially hotter than the…
Since the collisional mean free path of charged particles in hot accretion flows can be significantly larger than the typical length-scale of the accretion flows, the gas pressure is anisotropic to magnetic field lines. For such a large…
In systems accreting well below the Eddington rate, the plasma in the innermost regions of the disk is collisionless and two-temperature, with the ions hotter than the electrons. Yet, whether a collisionless faster-than-Coulomb energy…
We explore the effects of anisotropic thermal conduction, anisotropic pressure, and magnetic field strength on the hot accretion flows around black holes by solving the axisymmetric, steady-state magnetohydrodynamic equations. The…
Plasmas in an accretion flow are heated by MHD turbulence generated through the magneto-rotational instability. The viscous stress driving the accretion is intimately connected to the microscopic processes of turbulence dissipation. We show…
Event horizon-scale observations of low-luminosity black hole accretion flows favor magnetically arrested disks, characterized by dynamically important magnetic fields ($\beta\lesssim1$, where $\beta$ is the ratio of plasma thermal pressure…
We use 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations to study the effect of the saturated whistler instability on the viscous heating and nonthermal acceleration of electrons in a shearing, collisionless plasma with a growing magnetic field,…
In the collisionless plasmas of radiatively inefficient accretion flows, heating and acceleration of ions and electrons is not well understood. Recent studies in the gyrokinetic limit revealed the importance of incorporating both the…
We perform a set of general relativistic, radiative, magneto-hydrodynamical simulations (GR-RMHD) to study the transition from radiatively inefficient to efficient state of accretion on a non-rotating black hole. We study ion to electron…
Pressure anisotropy can strongly influence the dynamics of weakly collisional, high-beta plasmas, but its effects are missed by standard magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). Small changes to the magnetic-field strength generate large…
In a grid-less Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) plasma thruster with a diverging magnetic nozzle, the magnitude of the ambipolar field accelerating the positive ions depends of the perpendicular energy gained by the electrons. This work…
We perform fully-kinetic particle-in-cell simulations of an hot plasma that expands radially in a cylindrical geometry. The aim of the paper is to study the consequent development of the electron temperature anisotropy in an expanding…
Advection-dominated, high-temperature, quasi-spherical accretion flow onto a compact object, recently considered by a number of authors, assume that the dissipation of turbulent energy of the flow heats the ions and that the dissipated…
Using 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) plasma simulations we study electron acceleration by temperature anisotropy instabilities, assuming conditions typical of above-the-loop-top (ALT) sources in solar flares. We focus on the long-term effect of…
We present results from the first 3D kinetic numerical simulation of magnetorotational turbulence and dynamo, using the local shearing-box model of a collisionless accretion disc. The kinetic magnetorotational instability grows from a…
Simple assumptions made regarding electron thermodynamics often limit the extent to which general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations can be applied to observations of low-luminosity accreting black holes. We present,…
Accretion flows onto underluminous black holes, such as Sagittarius A* at the center of our galaxy, are dilute (mildly collisional to highly collisionless), optically thin, and radiatively inefficient. Therefore, the accretion properties of…
Angular momentum transport and particle acceleration during the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in a collisionless accretion disk are investigated using three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. We show that the kinetic MRI…
When a cylindrically-symmetric magnetized plasma compresses or expands, velocity-space anisotropy is naturally generated as a result of the different adiabatic conservation laws parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field. When the…
In low-collisionality plasmas, velocity-space instabilities are a key mechanism providing an effective collisionality for the plasma. We use particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations to study the interplay between electron and ion-scale…